Gotham Writer’s Workshop – who teach great courses for writers – have emailed in their newsletter three short answers from Barbara Kingsolver to common writing questions.
Q. What is your best method for overcoming writers block?
A. Raise children. You’ll be so hungry for writing time, given the constraints, that you’ll leap onto your keyboard like a racehorse out of the gate, every time.

Q. What is your favorite or most helpful writing prompt?
A: What am I really trying to say here?

Q. What is the most valuable advice you received as a young writer?
A: “Your first sentence should make a promise that the rest of the story will keep.” – Francine Prose

Go to www.kingsolver.com for more from this wonderful writer.

The best way for you to make time for your writing is for you to insist to yourself that it’s important. Although spending fifteen minutes a day pouring words onto the page might seem frivolous when you have to juggle work, family and friends, you’re actually doing yourself and those around you a favour if you make time for you passion. You’ll feel good if you devote some time each day, or each week, to your writing; and that will impact the rest of your life.

One proponent of this is the writer Julia Cameron. She insists in her book The Artist’s Way that every day those of us who want to write should scribble down three pages – longhand – first thing in the morning. Don’t let your thoughts get too much in the way of this process, just write whatever comes into your mind. It’s about the practice of getting words on the page. These Morning Pages aren’t for show, they’re not for publication, they’re for you as a writer to experience the act of writing daily.

Realistically those of us with screaming kids might find it hard to settle first thing with three empty pages and a pen. So, modify the exercise and find a window of time a bit later in the day, or jump out of bed before your children. Perhaps you start work really early and don’t have time to get your pages done before you have to leave. So, do the pages later. Make your writing practice about Evening Pages and enjoy what that bring to you. As you write, you’ll find ideas and stories you never knew were lurking inside you, and who knows where those might lead. Apparently, J.K Rowling was sitting on the train when Harry Potter jumped into her mind, but because she was already writing regularly, she knew how to shape her ideas on the page. She used to work in a small cafe, I believe.

If the idea of writing every day is just too daunting, then choose a time every week and set it as your own. Perhaps Friday evenings you could write for two hours (go on, switch off the TV) – it might seem tricky because you’re not getting the daily practice in, but push yourself to put words on the page. It’s the only way to bring your dreams of writing into reality.

Julia Cameron says, “Creativity is like breathing.’ I like that.

If you have other things in your life – family, friends, good productive day work – these can interact with your writing and the sum will be all the richer. David Brin

People are always asking where I get my ideas for stories as if, perhaps, the alchemical process is easy to wrestle into words.  I try to explain that ideas sometimes pop into my head when I least expect it, like mushrooms in a lawn; other times they sneak up on me, troubling at my consciousness until I spend a little time figuring out what exactly I’m planning to write.  Some ideas go the distance and turn into long stories or novels, others peter out leaving me with half finished narratives and tears of irritation.  When an idea seems so perfect that it has to be written down but comes to nothing on the page is when I feel worst as a writer, even worse than when I get rejection letters or unkind reviews (more about those in a later post!) 

But there are some places which I find are gold mines for ideas and so here are my top four for you to get inspired and get writing. 

1- Listen to conversations people are having around you.  Snippets of overheard dialogue can send your imagination on a terrific journey.

2- As yourself WHAT IF?  What if the sun didn’t come up tomorrow, what if your boss fired you in five minutes, what if you could fly?  What if is a key question for a writer, making you rethink your world and the world of your characters.

3- Think about the angle you need to tell your story from: by chosing the right perspective and the right opening you can discover new ideas and ways of looking at something that might have seemed too tired or boring before.

4- Read.  Read.  Read.  I could say this all day.  Books are like art galleries for aspiring (and established) writers, giving a space for the imagination to view and discover new work.  I don’t mean for you to copy what you’re reading, but I do mean let it inspire you and inform your dreams.